Talking to Nonstrangers
by StillNotGinger10
Summary: At the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, Remus left his job at Hogwarts and Sirius escaped on Buckbeak, but where did they go?


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything from J.K. Rowling's world except for merchandise.

Remus Lupin stood a few miles outside of Hogsmeade with his trunk magically shrunken and safely in his pocket. He was loitering by some caves his friends and he had often explored back in their school days. No one from the village ever came here, and perhaps he was feeling nostalgic, but, having just left Hogwarts after the strangest reunion he imagined any two friends could have, he wanted to be alone somewhere that reminded him of his friends.

Rumus had just resigned his post as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, which meant he could no longer stay in Hogwarts castle, which had been like a second home to him. He wanted somewhere quiet to think about his future when he remembered these caves, and, overwhelmed with memories, he knew he had to visit them. Now that he was there though, he didn't know what to do. So he just wandered aimlessly, thinking about where to go after this.

Should he try to track down Sirius? Would he even know where to start? Well, of course he would; if anyone knew how Sirius Black thought, it was Remus Lupin. The problem was that Sirius's thought patterns were a bit crazed and unconventional before spending thirteen years in Azkaban; was it really smart for Remus to assume he still knew Sirius's mind, even now? He could search for weeks and still not run into him. Was it really a good idea to track down a convicted felon anyway? Well, of course it was, it was Sirius. Did Sirius want to be tracked down though?

Maybe he should get a job, Remus thought. Whether he tried to find Sirius or not, he would need food, and food cost money. But where could he find work? He had just been outed as a werewolf! Who in their right mind would hire him now? He could go work in muggle shops, he supposed, but how long would that last when he needed almost a full week off every month? He gave a small smile at the thought of telling his hypothetical, muggle employer that it was "that time of the month again, so I'm going to need the week off, OK?" He was tempted to try it just to see their reaction.

He stopped suddenly. A few hours with Sirius Black the night before, and he was already thinking up pranks to pull on people he hadn't even met yet. _Merlin_, even after Azkaban the man's humor was still like a contagious disease. You never even knew you caught it until it was too late, and by then someone would already have scarlet and gold hair, there would be a secret organization that no one, not even the members, knew the purpose of (of course they wouldn't admit that, they would just say it's purpose was as secret as the organization itself), there would be a guinea pig on the roof (and if everything went according to the nonexistent plans, another in a random bed in the girl's dorms. Not necessarily the Gryffindor girl's dorms, but somehow it always did end up being Lily's bed, didn't it?), and a random Slytherin (random? Ha! Like it could be any Slytherin besides Snape) would be tied upside down somewhere with something immature written on his face, and there would be no one that could plausibly be blamed except for a ghost, which made no sense as ghost couldn't actually touch things. The Fat Fryer never could explain how he had ended up in that corridor, and no one could find any proof against the four Gryffindor boys that had been studying in the library the whole time and had no idea anything strange had even happened (_"Of course we're really in the library, Professor McGonagall, where else would we be? It's our OWLs this year! That does sound funny though. Gosh, it's too bad we missed it. Oh well, back to studying. Explain again, why exactly did the ministry give werewolves a XXXXX danger classification, Moony?"_)

Remus was startled from his thoughts by the sound of hooves on the rocks. He turned to find a man with long, shaggy hair sitting on top of a hippogriff. The hippogriff was noticeably cleaner than the man.

"Do you want a ride?" The man asked with an amused smirk.

Remus looked him over before looking dismissively away, "I probably shouldn't, they're saying a criminal escaped somewhere near here last night."

"Really?" The man looked around as though the criminal were going to appear right next to them. "Well, I haven't seen anyone suspicious around. I bet he's long gone by now."

"Yes, you'd have to be mad to hang around after escaping, I imagine."

"Exactly. This criminal sounds too astoundingly intelligent and devilishly handsome to risk getting caught like that."

"The prison he escaped from, it's known for driving people mad." As the man opened his mouth to reply, Remus continued, "Although, I have heard that his friends thought he was crazy before he even went to prison. One seems to think that he was too far gone to be driven more insane by any prison, and a place like that could only push him in the other direction; it would make him sane if it did anything."

The man on the hippogriff let out a bark of laughter. Remus smiled up at him, his eyes reflecting the amused shine he could see in the other man's own eyes.

"Budge over, Padfoot."

Sirius scooted forward, and, with a little help from his friend (it had been a full moon the night before, so don't judge him for not being in the best shape), Remus climbed onto the hippogriff behind him. Then they took off.

"Hey, Moony? If I give you some money, could you buy me an owl? I owe someone a pet."


End file.
